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I'm looking for advice and recommendations to improve this Sadducee defense.  It's a little bloated right now so it would be nice to trim it down.  I'm including the Lost Souls because I feel they play an important part of any defense.

If you recommend adding a card please let me know what you'd cut and why you think the card your adding is more helpful.

Thanks a bunch for your advice!

Artifacts/Curses 7
Asherah Pole
Crown of Thorns
Golden Calf
Unholy Writ
Urim and Thummim
Besieged
Unknown Nation

Fortresses/Sites 2
High Priest's Palace
Herod's Temple

Lost Souls 7
Lost Soul (can't be prevented)
Lost Soul (color guard)
Lost Soul (female only)
Lost Soul (N.T. only)
Lost Soul (shuffler)
Lost Soul (site doubler)
Lost Souls (2-line)

Evil Characters 10
High Priest Ananias
High Priest Caiaphas
Captain of the Temple Guard
High Priest Annas
Temple Guard
Alexander
Sadducees
Sadducees
Sadducees
Sadducees

Evil Enhancements 10
Lying Unto God
Just a Hireling
Intent to Kill
High Priest's Plot
Pride of Simon
Devourer
False Witness
Net
Joseph in Prison
Wrath of Satan

I don't know why I'm helping the mighty Gabe, but at least I'll give my take.

I think you can do without:
   beseiged:  good for banders but wool fleece is pretty rare and temples are hit and miss
   UN:   you have a sadd. that can already search, they band well so can easily get around AoTL... I suggest this because of the amount of arts/curses that you have, and I don't think it will see too much activation. finally:  color guard and HPpalace should help with AoCp
   If Herod's temple is not purple then it's not needed...if so then I can see why. (I'm just not familiar with it)
   personally, I don't like capture cards w/out raider's camp for 2 reasons:
                 1. they produce lost souls
                 2. capture is pretty easy to avoid these days
     so my suggestion would be to take at least one capture out, maybe 2 if you consider my future suggestion of "pushed back".
   I'm not a fan of Alexander, but I've never drawn a NT evil card with him yet, and I have buried SoG with him.
 
   I have had success with "Pushed Back" so you may want to consider that (if you get rid of both captures)
      That will bring you to:
              5 in Art pile
              2 fort/site if herod temple is purple
             9 ECs
             9 EE
Not a major cut, but it gets you closer to your goal and gives you something to think about....
...BUT what do I know...I'm just a noob

This has heroless written all over it! I love it! If I were you I might try to add HHI, maybe.

dude if your using a sadducee defence then why do you throw in simon the magician? he cant band

His enhancements cannot be negated against NT heroes.  Therefore, when you activate Asherah Pole and Simon the Magician, all your evil enhancements cannot be negated.  Sounds like a good deal to me.

Kirk

Thanks everyone for the input so far. 

I want to take a moment to explain the purposes of Herod's Temple.  It's purple, so when combined with the color guard it offers protection from AoCp (in case I don't have Hight Priest's Palace yet).  It also give my two capture Enhancements "can't be negated" when played on Captain of the Temple Guard.  So that's why it's in there.  As other's have noted, maybe some (or all) of the capture should go, same with Captain of the Temple Guard leaving Herod's Temple a lot less valuable.  It might have been overkill in the first place.

I probably agree with those that said Beseiged can go.  The unnegatable banding is nice vs FBTN and I like the ability to discard a Fortress but it's mostly a luxury I can do without.

I'm surprised at how many people dislike Alexander.  I like him because I'm a junkie for adding extra cards to my hand.  There are 20 cards in the original defense that he can grab (including Dominants).  Maybe I just haven't played with him enough to see his true colors. 

@ Scott.  I tried the defense you proposed and lost to my 6 year old cousin.  Thanks a lot!   Malchius and Just a Hireling have synergy but it costs me 2 evil Characters for 1 stop (since Malchius isn't a Sadducee) and that's a high price to pay.  The thought of using Hormah with Doctrine Like Leaven (on one of the big Sadducees) is really cruel.  I like it. 

HHI is a good call provided it doesn't shut down my offense.

Simon the Magician should definately be in here.  How did I overlook him? Out with a Sadducee, in with the Magician.  The annoyance factor of U&T almost makes it worth while by itself, not to mention how it can help you choose the right combo to use on offense to win a soul.  I'd really hate to it go but you might be right, I do question whether or not it's absolutely necessary.

Hmmm, Lot's Wife.  She'd be good for borrowing my opponent's defense but I don't know if she'd help mine very much.

Great advice.  Thanks!

PM sent

Have you looked at switching things up and playing with four generic Pharisees and a Lying Spirit? Add Momentum Change and Twice Afflicted to play Just a Hireling a lot, and add Balaam's Disobedience and maybe a Night Raid to fill things out, and you have a quirky but potentially devastating defense.

Hmm. I think I'll try this out.